Give A Little Love

I wanted to add something a little different to my blog. It’s such a great way to reach out to people, why not make it a great way to help people.

If you or anyone you know is doing something for charity (a marathon, a bike ride, shaving your head etc) or just trying to raise awareness for a great cause, I want to know about it. Tweet me/Facebook me/email me/Instagram me/leave a message on my blog, anyway you can, get in contact! Send me a little bit about the cause & the links to your fundraising page. I’ll put them all up on this page here and hopefully help to bring in a few more donations or a little more awareness.

If you’ve got a few pounds spare from the coffee you didn’t have time to grab this morning, come and help someone out, every penny counts!

Alice Clarke

Our beautiful mum was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2015, as a loving but dedicated nurse herself it was utterly devastating to see our lives turned upside down. She is currently receiving treatment at the St.Thomas cancer unit in Guildford in which her care has been amazing but also the support too. In return me and my sister will be running the race for life in June to say a massive thank you for everything they are doing for our mum.

In September 2016 I will be climbing Kilimanjaro, the worlds tallest freestanding mountain, to raise money for The Meningitis Research Foundation, my fundraising goal is £2990. The Meningitis research foundation is a charity with the aim of freeing the world from meningitis and septicaemia. Globally up to 5% of all deaths of children aged under five are caused by meningitis and septicaemia, while a third of survivors have long term disabilities, like amputation, brain damage and deafness. The money that I raise will go towards funding research projects and providing support to those affected. The charity has invested £18.5 million in research projects since 1989 and with your help I’d like to add to that!

In June 2015, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Together for Short Lives launched an exciting new campaign to help children and families get the care and support they need today and tomorrow. Rolls-Royce has generously donated a purple, Together for Short Lives branded, Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II to the charity and, over the next year, we’ll be using this one-of-a-kind car to raise vital funds for seriously ill children and their families. This car is for hire and all proceeds go to the charity.

There are 49,000 children and young people living in the UK with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition. Together for Short Lives is the leading UK charity that speaks for all of these children and young people and all those who support, love and care for them. The charity’s work helps to ensure that children and families can get the best possible care, wherever they are and whenever they need it.

We had an incredibly exciting evening launching this car being handed to the charity, the car was officially handed to the charity by one of its patrons Simon Cowell at a star studded mid-summer ball hosted by Simon for the charity and we managed to raise £400k on the night. We really hope that this car will raise even more money over the next year.

In August next year I will be going to Nepal with a group of 20 people from my university to help rebuild schools that were destroyed in an earthquake, allowing children to continue with their education. I have a pretty big target of £2895 and I would be so grateful if anyone could spare some money to donate, any donation big or small will be a big help towards building the best schools possible. Thank you so much!

I am an actress and I have two rare conditions: The first is called POTS, which stands for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. This is a chronic illness, which I will have for life. http://www.potsuk.org – this is a link to the website which will explain about the illness and its symptoms etc.
The second is EDS type 3 – Hypermobility, which stands for Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. I will also have this two for life. http://www.ehlers-danlos.org – this is the UK site to help briefly explain more about the condition.

I was diagnosed with POTS in January and EDS around Easter time. Speaking on behalf of the people diagnosed with these illnesses, with these conditions being so rare and misdiagnosed it is very difficult to receive help and support as very little people or even doctors know about them. I had to quit my dancing career as my conditions weren’t allowing me to continue, I was becoming incredibly tired and had no energy. My heart rate at resting without medication was nearing on 100-130bpm so when my heart rate increases due to exercise or stress etc. I would go to pass out! With POTS this can happen even if we just stand up from sitting or laying down. I’m lucky enough to say, I am not in a wheelchair and still trying to continue my day-to-day life as best as I can. I have constant chronic joint pain, so even a flight of stairs make me worry or when I simply go shopping I need to pace myself, drink plenty and rest whenever I can. I even struggle standing up long enough to cook my own dinner!
I think I took much of these normal day-to-day things for granted before I got sick.

So when I gradually understood my conditions a little better I started a blog to help raise awareness for these conditions, so people newly diagnosed would feel less alone. As I say, these conditions aren’t very well known and we struggle to get the help we need. I’m lucky to say the severity of my conditions isn’t as bad as some but I have met people along my journey who are in wheelchairs and can’t do much for themselves at all. We would love nothing more than to have your help in raising awareness for our illnesses! It would be so so appreciated!! I can’t quite describe how much it would mean to me and other POTS and EDS sufferers.

My blog is ellejanecarter.com – if you could spare a few moments to maybe read or share. It would mean a lot to me!

Jessica Watson

Next year I will be cycling from London to Paris for 3 days for breast cancer now! This is a close to home charity for me with my mum having breast cancer two years ago and many family friends being diagnosed also. I’ve worked at the charities offices in the summer as the charity means a lot to me.

My Mother-in-law has recently been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and is quickly deteriorating. My boyfriend has set up a charity for his Mum called ‘Multiple Sclerosis Charity Challenges’ which aims to set up many events and challenges in order to help raise money to help fund some of these things for all sufferers out there. The first challenge is to walk the 85 miles along Hadrian’s Wall in March which is MS Awareness Month. It would be great if we could get as many sponsors as possible and I would be so grateful if you could help make more people aware and take part if they wish to do so also.